Sofia a beautiful City with many attractions but walking around the city for some five hours there are things I noticed that this City lacking something. In the five hours of walking around and the thousands of shops that were passed, 80% of these were fashion and jewelery shops. The vast majority of the remainder were made up of fast food joints, restaurants, cafes and casinos!
It was with dismay that I peered upon shop after shop with total lack of interest in what was presented which essentially was materialistic matter. In all that time getting hypnotised by repetition of the same type of shops I did not see one single trader that sold fresh fruit or vegetables. In a country that has so much produce grown nationally I found this staggering.
The thousands of people here working and living in the city were all seen to be eating on the move with pizzas, sandwiches or cakes. It is no wonder the worry of eating habits are a concern in the Bulgarian City.
It seems that Sofia is obsessed with designer fashion and jewelry and personally I was quite shocked with this narrow minded trend of business lines based here. To a vast majority of the population who have money to throw away on this never ending source of material based luxury goods where you could spend a lifetime shopping you can't find an apple unless it is gold plated.
Why do I find this so disgusting or is it just me being so tied up an economy based on needs rather than wants living and non-materialistic world in village life on a smallholding?
Also, why do I feel that morally there is something drastically wrong with Sofia City in view of this?
Bulgarian Litterbugs
Rubbish in Bulgaria is all around us and this is a strong and quite off putting first impression many visitors get. This has been put down to a hangover form the communist era where you could be arrested and impounded from dropping litter in the street - what a good idea!
Since the demise of communism part of the freedom included the right to litter the streets without any recrimination and because they now have this right they exercise it to the full. This is more of a retaliation to the previous incarcerated system that went before and a habit now that has been embedded in countless Bulgarians who could be described as litterbugs.
The trouble is that the habits of the parents get passed over to the next generation and right now what I see is a confusion in littering habits. Schools teach ideals of caring for the community you live in but a different signal is coming from the home from their parents. It remains that the reason for towns and cities being 'clean' is mainly due to the street cleaners.
If you rise early before the streets have been given a going over you will see litter scattered everywhere but from dogs, cats and whatever else is around that have been into the big bins and leaving a mayhem of litter on the road and pavements. Included in the scavenging the previous evening are the Roma who sieve through the wastage for cardboard, plastic and metal for patching up their homes, selling on or fuel material for cooking and/or heating.
Even watching Roma children regularly searching through bins in town fast food joints, picking out left over food and walking off whilst eating what they found is common here. Quite a shock at first sight but all part of the how this Bulgaria runs on a day to day basis. This is quite a contrast or even a condradiction to the Roma who litter more than Bulgarian. You can almost certainly recognize most Roma homes by the litter that surround it, this is just how they are over here in Bulgaria with garden as rubbish dumps.
Things will change gradually with the introduction of on the spot fines that will come about in uniform with the EU, in fact back to communist policy.
It must be said that for may visitors to Bulgaria the litter spread around the country is quite an off putting factor and even now an annoying 'tut tut' is made when seeing Bulgarian folk thrown litter down without a thought. Perhaps one area of Bulgaria that doesn't appeal.
How can a population brought up on conservation and green living do these things? As mentioned earlier it may be that it is an abuse of the freedom they have been giving to do it...
Since the demise of communism part of the freedom included the right to litter the streets without any recrimination and because they now have this right they exercise it to the full. This is more of a retaliation to the previous incarcerated system that went before and a habit now that has been embedded in countless Bulgarians who could be described as litterbugs.
The trouble is that the habits of the parents get passed over to the next generation and right now what I see is a confusion in littering habits. Schools teach ideals of caring for the community you live in but a different signal is coming from the home from their parents. It remains that the reason for towns and cities being 'clean' is mainly due to the street cleaners.
If you rise early before the streets have been given a going over you will see litter scattered everywhere but from dogs, cats and whatever else is around that have been into the big bins and leaving a mayhem of litter on the road and pavements. Included in the scavenging the previous evening are the Roma who sieve through the wastage for cardboard, plastic and metal for patching up their homes, selling on or fuel material for cooking and/or heating.
Even watching Roma children regularly searching through bins in town fast food joints, picking out left over food and walking off whilst eating what they found is common here. Quite a shock at first sight but all part of the how this Bulgaria runs on a day to day basis. This is quite a contrast or even a condradiction to the Roma who litter more than Bulgarian. You can almost certainly recognize most Roma homes by the litter that surround it, this is just how they are over here in Bulgaria with garden as rubbish dumps.
Things will change gradually with the introduction of on the spot fines that will come about in uniform with the EU, in fact back to communist policy.
It must be said that for may visitors to Bulgaria the litter spread around the country is quite an off putting factor and even now an annoying 'tut tut' is made when seeing Bulgarian folk thrown litter down without a thought. Perhaps one area of Bulgaria that doesn't appeal.
How can a population brought up on conservation and green living do these things? As mentioned earlier it may be that it is an abuse of the freedom they have been giving to do it...
Bulgarian Hearses and Zebra Crossings - Avoid
It's a bit like going round smashing windows so you can sell new windows but in Bulgaria it is a bit more morbid. The story unfolds.
Bulgaria would be a safer place without zebra crossings on the road. Anyone who has tried using them will know exactly what I'm talking about.
The worse thing about zebra crossings is it attracts pedestrian the passing traffic use this just like the spider attracting the fly to the web and when in pounce! This happens regularly and pretty soon you get used to it but one day it happened and the vehicle was a hearse. As the Zebra crossing was approached there was eye contact with the driver of the hearse, he was even trying to get business from an early death to himself as I saw he was smoking.
You have to step out onto the road to get traffic to stop but most time they don't. In this case I did exactly that and the big black estate slowed down, this was a signal for me to walk across as I did he sped up and I had to take a quick couple of steps back to avoid becoming his next horizontal customer!
As the car passed by me the driver was obviously on a mission for business as thick clouds of diesel fumes enveloped me as the engine laboured under maximum acceleration. Not only did he try and knock me over he was now trying to intoxicate me with the fumes.
When will I ever learn? - I must stop using zebra crossings in Bulgaria and always let hearses go by with a wide berth as they are on the hunt for new customers.
Bulgaria would be a safer place without zebra crossings on the road. Anyone who has tried using them will know exactly what I'm talking about.
The worse thing about zebra crossings is it attracts pedestrian the passing traffic use this just like the spider attracting the fly to the web and when in pounce! This happens regularly and pretty soon you get used to it but one day it happened and the vehicle was a hearse. As the Zebra crossing was approached there was eye contact with the driver of the hearse, he was even trying to get business from an early death to himself as I saw he was smoking.
You have to step out onto the road to get traffic to stop but most time they don't. In this case I did exactly that and the big black estate slowed down, this was a signal for me to walk across as I did he sped up and I had to take a quick couple of steps back to avoid becoming his next horizontal customer!
As the car passed by me the driver was obviously on a mission for business as thick clouds of diesel fumes enveloped me as the engine laboured under maximum acceleration. Not only did he try and knock me over he was now trying to intoxicate me with the fumes.
When will I ever learn? - I must stop using zebra crossings in Bulgaria and always let hearses go by with a wide berth as they are on the hunt for new customers.
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